NHS records confidential?

[KHA]

Is it possible for any nurse to access anyone's health record? I know it is only legal to access their own patients records but is it POSSIBLE?

Yes, anyone who has access to the systems can access anyone's records. If you believe someone has been looking at yours/someone else's then you can put a complaint in and IT can run an audit of who's accessed those records.

I'm an NHS secretary and have worked in NHS IT before.

Anyone with access to the NHS Summary Care Record, not just nurses, can access anyone's record

Specific hospital or GP records can only be accessed by someone working within that organisation

Possible yes but its all recorded and they need a reason to do this if you suspect someone is doing it and they have no need to you can report it

I’m a nurse and you can within your own health board - Scotland. But you are only allowed to look at records of people you are directly caring for. It will be picked up if anyone is looking at records of people they know/don’t have any relevance to job etc. my job is with ages 0-5 so If I started looking at an adults file it would flag up.

I would also say, the majority of nurses I know/worked with are professionals who would not risk their career nosing at someone’s records for any reason but then there is always a bad apple.

Anyone can access (pretty much) but it is all tracked, so if you suspect someone has accessed your record for nefarious reasons then you can report them and it can be audited. My friend was just saying to me yesterday that her abusive partner’s sister has accessed her records and is using them to be vile and nasty. Report, report, report!

Yes

Within the trust it's sometimes possible to. Some systems have care groups so people can only see their specialty eg oncology but that might not be enough to protect a record depending on the patient's situation.

Staff can and have lost their jobs for accessing records they shouldn't. Every action they take in the system is logged to their user profile so any audit report should flag up inappropriate access.

If you have a concern, raise it with PALS. It will be taken very seriously.

Can you explain why you are concerned

Me daughter is recieving councilling via NHS for one issue but a close relative nurse is causing unrelated issues and I know my daughter is discussing the stresses this relative is causing. I wondered if the nurse can see a summary of the discussions

I work in a GP surgery. I can’t see hospital records, or the records of anyone not registered within my PCN.

The summary of the session would be written in your daughters case notes. These may be on paper and locked away in the counselling service department. It depends on the trust. If they are electronic, in theory, yes - anyone could look at them. But it's a disciplinary to be looking at electronic records of people who aren't your patient. And it's very easily traced.